1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to safety flasher devices in automotive lighting systems, and more particularly to safe mechanisms for interrupting primary electrical currents in the same.
2. Setting for the Invention
Modern vehicles including tractor-trailer trucks, presently require the standard installation of an ON/OFF contact or like switch with electrical circuitry, so to activate the vehicle's factory installed headlamps and running lights. The driver wising to switch on the headlamps or running lights will reach to the vehicle's dash or instrument panel and manually activate the corresponding switch, or switches.
To switch off the lights, the reverse operation would be achieved by reaching to the dash or instrument panel to flash the headlamps and running lights. This can pose great highway safety problems to other drivers, for the reason that the driver must control carriage weights in excess of 90,000 pounds along with tractor and trailers of lengths in excess of sixty feet, while reaching to the dash or instrument panel to switch the lights momentarily ON and then OFF. In connection therewith, the length of the tractor-trailer is an important factor when considering to pass another vehicle. Thus, when one truck is passing another, the yield in vehicle speed, necessary to drop back into the slow lane after the pass is complete, is signaled upon his flashing of the head lights to other drivers, in hope that they will allow time and space for the forward truck's safe return to the inner lane of traffic.
Signaling by use of headlamp and running lights, continues to be a chief mode of communications among truck drivers. Reaching to switch the lights on and off while driving and passing is a very dangerous practice, especially in the case of tractor-trailer trucks, and hitherto, prior art has not provided a safe and simple way to solve this serious highway hazard.
Hitherto, prior art has not directly addressed the problem created by a vehicle driver reaching to the dash or instrument panel to effect a flashing signal by turning his vehicle's headlamp and/or running lights off, and then on, in a repeated fashion. In this connection, what has been taught as a partial solution thereto, has depended upon several factors, including whether a vehicle is being engineered with the abovementioned problem in mind, or whether one is confronted with a preexisting vehicle that has no specialized apparatus with which to generate a flashing signal and the like, in a safe manner, from where the vehicle operator sits behind the steering wheel.
Some vehicle manufacturers incorporate headlamp control arrangements to enable intermittent operation of headlamp assembly, when headlamps, having two lamps (for levels of illumination), are utilized as a flashing signal system operable both day and night times. Such prior art teaches ways to alternately deliver electric power to a main headlamp or set thereof, to a subordinate headlamp of set thereof, in a cyclical manner, once the vehicle operator sets a switch mounted within his reach, to its ON position. Such prior art teaches a way to effectuate a switching function that alternately delivers electric power to one headlamp assembly on a vehicle, and then to another headlamp assembly in a cyclic manner. Such a signaling system presumes that existence of two or more headlamp assemblies on a vehicle, does not effectuate the flashing of running lights on a tractor-trailer, and also it requires factory installation. Moreover, it is directed towards application in automobiles, and not tractor trailer trucks, as is the present invention.
Other approaches to signal generation, for passing and other driving operations, have been less sophisticated and teach simply to add ON/OFF type switches to standard equipment, so to provide a more convenient way to signal, via a headlamp or running light system, rather than by manually switching multiposition switches. This latter approach does not, however, remove the hazard occasioned by a driver's removal of hand off steering wheel and reaching for the dash or instrument panel to effect a flashing of headlamps and running lights, when signaling to drivers in the slow lane behind him, and also to drivers attempting to pull into the right lane after effecting a passing maneuver, that he would like to pull his vehicle back into the slow lane. In short, while signal passing systems are factory available on many automotive vehicles, they do not allow the driver to effectuate a flashing of headlamps and running lights without requiring the driver to remove a hand from the steering wheel. In connection therewith, there is prior art which teaches a practice of mounting on the rim of a steering wheel, in a plane perpendicular thereto, a steering wheel knob with which to perform the switching of electrical currents therein with ones fingers. This device has serious short comings however, since such a steering wheel knob, functioning as an operating means, creates a safety problem to vehicle operators in the case of a sudden or emergency stops, or accidents, whereby operator's chest and torso may be easily thrown thereagainst and resultingly punctured thereby. Further, prior art, hitherto, has not taught a safe way to provide an automotive lighting system with an operating means that can be factory installed by automotive vehicle manufaturer or added on as an accessory, and which is operable from any point on the steering wheel, without requiring the vehicle driver to remove his hand therefrom, and thereby eliminating the hazard associated therewith.